Did the DS live up to its promise?

[Roy Karrde]

Since everyone seems to be talking about the next generation of DS, or what ever Nintendo plans to roll out, I thought it might be time to look back at the DS. When it came out it seemed to have so much promise, a microphone, wifi capabilities, two screens, a touch screen, GBA slot, and later on a camera. It seems as if Nintendo gave the developers the tools to think outside of the box for the first time since the creation of the hand held.

So looking back now, with the thousands of DS games out, and the DS on its last few years. Did the Developers actually utilize all the tools Nintendo gave them? Did Nintendo themselves actually make good use of all the tools?

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

It did for me, the absolute best handheld console to date with a broad and huge variety of games. What else could you ask for? IMO Nintendo shouldn't dump the DS any time soon. I think Nintendo used the tools pretty well though I think some of the features like the microphone aren't used that often. Don't know if the camera will be used that much in games or anything, it's too early yet to tell.

[Blademaster]

Alex is right. It's too early for a topic like this.

But if I had to respond, I'd say the DS carries/carried on Nintendo's handheld legacy proudly. It probably has more great games on it than the home consoles since its release, it's tried some new stuff and in several instances it passed with flying colors (Phantom Hourglass and TWEWY come to mind here.), and it proved itself against the PSP's superior graphical capabilities ever since it launched with a game the size of SM64 DS. I think that it's a bit early to phase out, but the Game Boy had about 10 or so years before the GBA replaced it... So the new DS arriving in 2010-2011 might be fitting. A six-seven year lifespan just kinda disappoints me for such a cool toy.

[PNT510]

I think the DS lived up to it's promise and far exceeded my expectations. When the DS came out I was hoping as many developers would ignore the touch screen and just use it like a 64 bit gameboy. I never thought I would enjoy a touch screen only Zelda game. Now Phantom Hourglass has its problems, but they don't have to do with the controls.